New construction updates for several areas of downtown Nashville. Your water bill will be increasing soon, but by how much? Plus, our guest has been shooting things his whole life, but it’s not just guns he’s shooting! All of this and today’s events on Nashville Daily
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Our Guest Today: Blas Hernandez | @blashernandez_
https://blashernandez2753.wixsite.com/mysite
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Creator of the Day: Jeff Carpenter | @readylightmedia
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00:00:00 Hello everybody. This is the Nashville daily podcast. I'm Stuart Deming and I'm Erin Pennington. New construction updates for several areas of downtown Nashville. Your water bill will be increasing soon, but by how much? Plus our guest has been shooting things his whole life, but it's not just guns that he's been shooting all of this and today's events on Nashville daily.
00:00:32 You can just add that.
00:00:36 All right. Welcome guys. Hope you had a good weekend. It is Monday and it's Monday morning. Of course that means traffic is terrible because everybody just a went. Maybe somebody took an extended weekend because of all of the events that happened this past weekend. And now traffic, we're feeling it with that traffic yet everybody, it's making it, it's going to be worse than traffic because it's so nice outside. Everybody's going to be rolling their windows down and then all that smog is going to get in their car listening to Christmas music. Yeah. And then everybody's just going to get annoyed because they just drove straight. They have had that. Do you guys know that song? Spooky. Scary skeletons. Yeah. You've had that stuck in your head that's been on like repeat for the last a week and it's like the dubstep versions. All right, so speaking of traffic, we've got somebody, we've got a guest who is from the traffic capital of the world. Well, it'd be able to bring in some perspective to us. Our guests is by good friend Blas, Hernandez Blas. Thank you so much for being on the podcast and you're going to give us perspective on a few things here Blas. We'll get into your bio in a second from, but you know, hopefully everybody knows the tropical traffic capital of the world is Los Angeles. What are your thoughts on Nashville traffic?
00:02:00 [Inaudible] I've been wanting to say this for quite some time and I've mentioned it on my Instagram stories. So if you guys are following me, you probably have heard my rants about Nashville and work at, they find you on Instagram or where you can find me at Blas. Hernandez underscore again, that's spelled B. L a. S H. E R N. A. N. D. E. Z. Underscore. If you go on there, you'll probably see my rants from time to time about Nashville's traffic and the problem that you guys think you
00:02:28 [Inaudible] you do not have a traffic problem. Nashville
00:02:34 Los Angeles has a traffic problem.
00:02:39 [Inaudible] A great point is I walk right into that one. Yeah, I love it.
00:02:43 Yeah. So you know the thing from everybody from LA when I say, does Nashville have any traffic problems? And they're like, no, you guys are still moving on the road. So that gives them perspective. Yeah. 100%. Like there, I don't think there has
00:03:00 Ever been a point where I've been stuck in Nashville traffic outside of just being in a red light that I've actually been, that I've stopped moving. In, in Los Angeles, it's very common to be on like a six lane highway and come to a dead stop and you're just looking around thinking like, how long ago did it stop? I did stop, can last anywhere from like 10 20 seconds sometimes, sometimes even a minute depending on what's going on up there. Seriously on the four Oh five, like the nickname for that is like the four or five hours.
00:03:33 That's amazing. Okay. So [inaudible]
00:03:36 For just for background as listeners are, are going to be getting your perspective on a few things. Why don't you go ahead and, and tell a quick story of how you ended up in Nashville and what kind of what kind of things you've been involved in before coming into, into the city and where you are now.
00:03:54 Yeah, so I'll just, I'll let you guys know right off the bat. I was a service member in the army. I can for an view. I appreciate it. Thank you. I served nine years. First duty station was in Korea. I relocated to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, which was my first stint in the South and in Tennessee. Had a blast here. Absolutely loved it. Especially being here now I'm able to see the growth of this city cause I did see it back in 2009 and 10. And to see what it looks like now is absolutely insane. And I'll get to that in a second. Right after Fort Campbell, Kentucky. I went into a, lived in Houston, Texas for a little while. I'm deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 to 11. Came back stationed in Hawaii, came to a crossroads on deciding what my next move was going to be.
00:04:42 And where ultimately I wanted to kind of like lay down my roots. Kind of went back to my service time while I was stationed here in Nashville. And remember the impact that it had on me, just the people you know, the city in general and everything that like there was everything that was accessible around the city that I enjoyed and I hadn't been exposed to as a child. Really, really kind of resonated with me. I felt like I should've been born here honestly. So that definitely played a huge part in coming and choosing Nashville, but also just trying to explore my faith was very important to me. And I just, I kinda knew when I started writing things down on paper, just where I wanted my next location or where I wanted to lay down my roots. I mean the decision was pretty obvious that Nashville kind of covered and checked all those boxes. Boxes for me. So
00:05:33 You thought you were coming somewhere cooler as well, right?
00:05:39 [Inaudible] Setting records. Yeah, this
00:05:42 Hotter than a double.
00:05:44 Okay.
00:05:45 I was stationed in a, in Hawaii for about three years and absolutely loved it. I had a blast. You know, living by the ocean, getting to serve and stuff like that, but I liked a lot in the long run. Yeah. I hiked a lot in Hawaii. That was one of my one of my goals. I wanted to do something every week and just kinda explore that Island inside and out, but view it from every possible angle cause I think people get so like enamored with like the, you know, just the ocean and stuff like that. Well, you know, go, go on those now and see how much cooler that ocean load go. Like deep diving at all. Oh, I did do some deep diving, a little bit, little S little scuba stuff here and there. Nothing too crazy though. Just like basic level. I think I focused a lot more of my like activity and attention on, like I said, hiking and wanting to learn how to surf. Growing up in California, it was something that is probably like one of my biggest regrets and not doing and taking advantage of living by the ocean at a young age. But I was involved in sports and stuff like that, so that kinda took my attention. But when I went to Hawaii
00:06:48 Last time I was in Hawaii, sorry to interrupt you. My friend who grew up on the Island like born and raised, he's like, are we were on Honolulu and he's like, Hey man, let's go to the North shore. I'm gonna teach you how to fish, sir. No, yeah. And so I'll get on the water and all the sudden I know, and now I'm under like six foot wave of water. I'm almost drowning to the point where like a lifeguard had to come get me out of the [inaudible].
00:07:12 Yeah, I definitely have some stories about the North shore and how, how humbled I was. I got to a point where I thought I was, I was pretty decent at surfing and wanted to go and surf, you know, the the North shore and anybody who's familiar with Hawaii or just surfing in general knows that the Mecca of the world is pipeline greatest wave the most, like, like you have to be an elite athlete to surf that wave. Now, I didn't surf pipeline didn't even attempt it, but there's a, there's two breaks to the right of pipeline. I believe it's called Rockies. And again, correct me if I'm wrong. It's been a while since I've been back. And I remember going out there with some good buddies of mine and we just kinda wanted to surf it and yeah, I went over the lip, you know, smashed my ribs on some reef. Never been back to that break outside of just watching it in competition. But yeah. Got humbled real quick. Yeah. Wow.
00:08:09 Yeah, I agree with you about Hawaii. Like it was just a kind of a blessing in disguise. It's the first time I went to Hawaii, I went to the big Island. You know, if you don't go to Hawaii, you don't know, Hey, there's an entire Island you're not going to get to enjoy the ocean with. And it's the biggest part. Yeah. And but you know, with an entire Island of active volcanoes and so much more to do, they're hiking a mountain mountain and join up the up those volcanoes in the national park. They're just, there's so much more to a Hawaii than, than people think. So it's pretty cool.
00:08:44 Yeah, definitely. I mean, if you, if you're ever, if you're ever wanting to go to Hawaii, I would recommend definitely, definitely doing that, that Island hopping trip, like go experience a different and see the different ways that, you know, the different activities that are available to you, but just also the, the differences in the way people live. It's just kinda like, you know, us traveling from state to state. You just kind of see how yeah.
00:09:07 Is this, doesn't the big Island have all seven of like the bio diverse ecosystems in the world? There's 12 different ecosystems. The big Island, I believe has 11 of those 12 only one. They don't have, I believes Arctic.
00:09:18 Yes. Saying 100%. Yeah. did so moving from Hawaii to the self, there's Hawaiian time and then there's solar Tyler time. Which one is worse? Oh man. Oh, I would have to say, I would have to say Hawaiian time. I think so too. [inaudible] Time is definitely worse. I'm a morning guy and I definitely love to like have my coffee in the morning and, and whatnot and I just can't deal with shops just opening up whenever they just kind of felt like it or if I'm like craving like one of my favorite dishes, like, you know, a pole cable. For anybody who doesn't know what that is, that's just raw seafood. Like AHI tuna. Have you heard of the polka that's written near in East Nashville? I have. And it's, it's, it's fixed my craving for sure. They're doing a good job over there.
00:10:10 So I, I definitely would recommend that. If you, if you want to just kinda get that little Island taste or that little Island fix or you're somebody who's been to the Island and kind of misses it, I would definitely go stop by there. It's not, it's not pinpoint. It's not exactly the same, but I mean it's a good taste of, you know, just, just getting back to the Island. So I definitely recommend it for sure. But like you were saying the the low, high time and like Southern time. Yeah, there was some times where I would just be craving like, you know, my favorite dish and I would go to these shops, you know, to try and get that in, you know, they just wouldn't be there. Like the doors wouldn't be open until nine o'clock in the morning. Yeah. And I'm like, are you serious? Like, what's going on here now in the South? I feel like everything just kinda closes too early. Yeah. If you're not in a city, as soon as it gets past banking hours there done closed. Right. There had been multiple times where I'm like pulling up to a Starbucks at like 10:00 PM, it's close and it's closed. All the lights are off. And I'm like, wow,
00:11:08 Why? As opposed to nine. Yeah. It's crazy to go like, Hey, people are still drinking coffee at the time. Yeah. Especially third shifters, like come on guys. Especially as editors and yeah. Creators. Let's, let's dive into some of these events. As we have said on this podcast, this is now event city music cities, events city is, is in, yeah, October is our busiest month of the year. I heard a 95% hotel occupancy for this month, October, which I believe is the inverse sane. December's probably the second [inaudible] for Buisiness cause all the Christmas events. But from a tourism perspective, December and January is actually the slowest months
00:11:54 And based on events. But October our hands down to our busiest month. It's crazy. It's insane. So let's get into it. Ryman auditorium is having seven days of seven shows. They're just insane. Yeah. So playing tonight at Ryman is catfish and the Bottlemen not sure who they are. I'm sure they're gonna [inaudible] seven 30 tonight at the Ryman. If you don't want to go
00:12:22 The Ryman, then you can go to the national film festival.
00:12:25 Yeah. And that's happening at Hollywood 27 in hundred Oaks and that's going through October 12th. That's to, to protect, it's for, that's Nashville film festival.org speaking next to the Ryman, the next door neighbor, the Bridgestone arena. Bridgestone arena is now ramping up for their event season. Oh yeah. So, so this week you have two predators' games. You have Thomas Rhett like it's, it's, it's gonna get busy. Will be. So the first predators game is Nashville predators versus San Jose sharks. Bridgestone arena 7:00 PM Los [inaudible], San Jose,
00:13:01 San Jose. No, I definitely didn't. I've never watched them. But anytime, anytime the Kings are in town, the Los Angeles Kings are in town, I'd definitely [inaudible]. Yeah, for sure. I'll, you'll see me. They're decked out in in Kingsville and stuff. Yeah. But yeah, last year I was able to attend a, the Kings versus predators game. Yeah. You guys got the upper hand. But I mean I like, I let you know when we're ahead for that short period of time, I'll tell you that. But one thing I will have to say, if you are an opposing team and you are visiting Nashville and a predators game, like the fans are so respectful, like they absolutely, you know, they know you're from a different team and they know you're rooting for a different team, but you're there to have a good time and they're just so respectful and they're going to play back with you. They're going to chirp at you, but it's going to be in a playful way and never in a way that you're not like Philadelphia fans. Philadelphia. Yeah. Terrible black cock or black Hawk fans. Yeah, no, definitely not. So like when I go to predators games and stuff like that, like it's just, it's just such a good time and it almost makes it hard to root against them because of the fan base. Still doing the King's tranche will be doing the predators. Wait, dang it. I can't do that cause I was wearing a versatile shirt.
00:14:13 They also have another game on Thursday, this week, a verse, the Washington capitals at 7:00 PM at Bridgestone arena. So that's the Nashville predators. We have Nashville soccer club playing where they playing.
00:14:25 All right, so a at first Tennessee park, soon to be first horizon park. But the soccer club, they're going to be playing a global city FC. They also play when they're back in Louisville. They also play on the triple a field, AAA baseball fields. So I think they do a lot of like, are they building a stadium up there in the little or no they've they've been playing at the the Lowville bat stadium for awhile. But that just, that it works out really well that those stadiums can double dip like that. But that's Tuesday national versus local. Tuesday, October 8th at 7:00 PM. And then we have, Oh, we talked about a, a birthday last week about what the Opry attorney 94, and we've got another national classic birthday coming up this week.
00:15:15 Yeah. So this is Tutsis 59th birthday bash. I believe they're shutting down part of Broadway between fourth and fifth. They've done that years past. Okay. According to their Facebook event they don't have any event, bright or anything else. This is not on their website. This is just the Facebook events. It says that they're shutting down fourth and fifth, so this is happening all day Wednesday. There's no way that they could have done it just in Tootsies. Oh no. So this is happening from one to 11:00 PM, and this is the 59th birthday of Tutsis. Last year, like I think it was last year, a couple years ago some really big country artists just popped up. They did like pop up shows for ptosis that may have a great list of performers this year, but it's, it's Tootsies and they're going to have some good pop-up artists coming.
00:16:04 Nice. okay. So we've got speaking of a long history of events going on,
00:16:11 This is insane. Yeah. Some of these events are over 30, 40 years old. This is the 40th,
00:16:17 Nashville Oktoberfest, which blows my mind. I did not realize the national Oktoberfest had been around for that long. I think it's really gained its stride probably in the last 10 years. But man,
00:16:31 I think last year they said 250,000 people went to the Oktoberfest. So it happens from the 10th through the 13th. So basically this entire weekend you can get some gray Stein's brought worse. What else can you get at the Oktoberfest?
00:16:47 They have a usually live music and entertainment there during the entire event. The good thing about a festival like this cause I went I believe two years ago is they have restrooms everywhere, which is really nice, which is good for national festivals. That's not the most common thing ever. So they have restrooms everywhere, which is good. They have shaded areas where you can go and drink. And they also have a lot of, of like local craft vendors and traveling vendors and everything. So you get a little bit of that kind of feel. It's in German town
00:17:24 And the weather is supposed to actually feel like fall, hopefully. So let's hope there is a five
00:17:30 K a beer and that's spelled B. I. E. R a beer run. That's great. You do drink beer. Yeah. there's a VIP experience for anybody who wants to have that kind of experience. I don't know exactly what that means.
00:17:43 The VIP, my friend did it I think two years ago. Basically you get access to like VIP
00:17:49 Tents, so you get a higher quality alcohol from Germany and you get your own like personalized Stein and you get access to food tents that the like regular people just visiting the events. There's a a, they're having some opening ceremonies there. It looks like there's kid activities and parade brought worth stating contest beer Stein holding a live German music. A pup parade. Ah, of course. This is Nashville. Right? That just makes sense for a puppet.
00:18:19 Right? Of course. Why not Nash now, now, now, now get some of those puppies, some beer. Have you guys ever seen a drunk dog? Probably on YouTube. Yeah, it is funny. So that was a growing up, my dad worked on this one farm and this dog would always come up to us after we were done, like working with a bucket and like, so the farmer and the all the guys will be drinking some beers and then everyone would have to dump some beer into this dog. This dog, his dog was an alcoholic. He got, he got drunk. It was funny. So this is another reason I saying go get your drugs drunk. By the way. [inaudible] Give him a little sample saying it might happen. [inaudible] Surprise. Only if the drug, the dogs are drunk and they're in this puppy.
00:19:07 Oh right. There not be a straight line. So yes, this event is a, this is an older event, but it's making a comeback. Some people have said that this is, this event is the one that like rejuvenated downtown's a start, like prompting the growth. Interesting. so this was an event that happened for almost 10 years straight in downtown Nashville and then it stopped for about six or seven years. How long ago? How long ago was it? I think the last one was like in 2011 or 2012, but it's called dancing in the district and it takes place downtown and it's just say live music like free festival in downtown Nashville a, but it was happening like in the mid nineties to early two thousands and everything. And this is also a Facebook event. They don't have Eventbrite or a website. So that's going to be in our show notes, you know, there hasn't been something like that in besides CMFs.
00:20:03 There hasn't been a lot of like local craft vendors in the downtown lower Broadway area. I don't know for awhile now. So some, some other events may be throughout the year, but like, I want to see what the foot traffic's going to be for this dancing in the district. Yeah, it'll be interesting. Let's see. This happening Thursday, October 10th. Yeah. It says we have daddy's dog's funk, soul brother, DOH, box, California food truck, the King of pops, Nashville. That's some good selection of food trucks. Old smokey distillery. Oh. let's see. The dry house is bringing a braid bar law love Cana, the Nashville blanket project, hippies and gypsies drinks for hope. The groove Nashville with the popup record shop.
00:20:45 Hey, let's start at, yeah, let's start a nonprofit
00:20:48 Drinks for hope. That definitely sounds like a nonprofit. All based on alcohol. Yeah. We'll join the bridge on Tuesday nights. Yeah. All right. So what's what's some business news happening in fifth and Broadway? Aron, so fifth and Broadway, making sure
00:21:04 A new announcement for a restaurant and bar for something that's has not been in national before. This is a restaurant and bar that's coming out of I believe, or city or city in DC. Yeah. New York city in Washington, D C this place is going to be called I think it's toppest bar. Is that, is that right?
00:21:27 The name? No, I have one them bushels. Name, name.
00:21:30 Both Korea. Korea, yeah. Yeah, I believe. And they're going to be set up in,
00:21:36 But they're serving tacos. So like Spanish style, small plate Blas. Is that how you would describe those types? I would say it's a Spanish style small plate experience. So like, okay. Yeah, I mean there that could be multiple dishes like that that come in like a small form like that and yet very familiar with like soap is and stuff like that. So. Okay. That's probably somewhere along the lines is what it sounds like. Is it more like a Mexican infused restaurant or is it like it didn't give too much detail. It's a Spanish so it's more Spanish. So the information that I was looking for though, is this going to be part of the food court or is this going to be a separate standalone restaurants then they mentioned all the other restaurants in the food court, but it doesn't specifically say if it's going to the food court and the food court is supposed to be a little bit more upscale.
00:22:28 Right. but also very quick. So I don't know if that style of restaurant fits that this may be part of a different area where somebody can sit down and eat and not like, I think you need some of those restaurants in fifth and Broadway as well though. Sit down and eat and it's going to be an interesting restaurant for the demographic in downtown Nashville because like, I don't know how many visitors are going to go this particular type of restaurant in downtown Nashville, you know, I know there's a, there's probably enough traffic that market, yeah, people are just going to do a lot of walking downtown and there's a place to sit in a nicer conditioning and it's, yeah, I wouldn't doubt any place like that would have
00:23:10 A hard time. So yeah, that'll be cool to see. I'm just, I'm just excited in general for fifth and broad to open. It's just gonna be such a different space downtown and give people opportunity to rest. I mean, that's kind of like when we were in a, in New York city, right. And we were by the the world trade center Memorial. And then there's that, I can't remember what the name of it is. That mall that's in the this big
00:23:38 Oh, the [inaudible]. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's kinda like a space like that. You've got a lot of things outside near the Hudson yards. Then you have this huge [inaudible] that looks like a whale skeleton. Right? Yeah.
00:23:48 And I think that's the most exciting thing. Like anytime the city is talking about, you know, building something or like, you know, just expanding in some way or another. Like that's exciting stuff. That's just more opportunity to just kind of get out there and just go experience something new.
00:24:03 And that's what, that's why we make content. We all of our content, our video content, our podcast is to inspire action to expire. You get out of your couch, off your couch as you're hiding inside of their cash. But like we, we want you guys to take action and that's the reason we create content. Well, we've got a lot of action to take because a new restaurant is on its way to the Bridgestone building downtown, which I'm excited for. I think that area needs a little bit more food cause it really, it had a Starbucks there. It has no, so the Starbucks is in the Encore, but it's like next on the cloud and gosh. Ah, so an Encore has a farmhouse. Oh that's right. Yeah. There are other restaurant. It's, it's blinking right now, but this restaurant, I think it's going to be on that backside at Bridgestone and literally [inaudible] Mike Little bar area behind Bridgestone.
00:24:54 It's like a no, it says the Bridgestone tower. Oh, the [inaudible] skyscraper. So okay. Do you guys know the Bridgestone tower entrance where it has that they're racing one of their racing cars and their big lobby and that huge tire sculpture. Yeah. So if you're looking at that, if you go, like if you look to the left, it's going to be behind that cause that's that they've been building out that space for a long time. This restaurant is going to be called the river house, which is an interesting name because it's not on the river. It's not either like, Nope. If you're going to call yourself the river house beyond the river, and I don't know, anytime you mentioned the river, I'm going to continue to say, Hey, there needs to be some restaurant because the only one is that blue, the blue moon lagoon lagoon or, or that's, that's in, in West Nashville. But there's nothing on the Cumberland in downtown where you can sit and see the water pretty much almost below your feet, which is really nice. I think that's coming, we're going to be talking about that in an episode later this week, but it's coming. Okay. Cause I think in the future,
00:25:59 Yeah, that's a great, that's, that's something that I honestly never even really thought about. But like having that Cumberland river and being able to sit at a spot that you can kind of overlook it and just kind of admire, like everything that's kind of happening around like you just,
00:26:11 No, you can't. And other cities who sit on rivers, they do it, they have it. And I don't know if it's just a, you know, a, a Corp of engineers thing where it's like, Hey, we gotta plug this area flood fast. That could be, that could be the primary reason. But the the restaurant tour behind this, he's associated with Western restaurants LLC, which owns brick tops, which is a great pizza restaurant on West end. And he's also associated with the watermark, that restaurant that's in the Gulch. I would work was, it's closed now to come into that, into downtown, but they to that exact areas. Plants. Yeah. but watermark I would say in the Nashville business journal even says a trail bait blazing restaurant that help establish the Gulf's now blooming culinary scene. Nice. So watermark was a great restaurant. I only had it once, but I think it's still open.
00:27:03 I'm not sure. Yeah. so speaking of the Gulch the North Gulch is really the area that's been talked about a lot. We talked about Publix opening up. So that legal view you see that opened up last Wednesday, last Wednesday, last Wednesday. And that was a, that was a really good experience going in the publics. I mean, it, it was great because they had a lot of deals and everybody was so friendly, really friendly, too friendly. So like a, I felt like they were gonna follow me home in the, in the, the church world, the like the work that I've done there's seven points of touch, like this idea of seven points of touch. No physical, not physical, no. But it's by the time you sit down in the auditorium of the church or business that you're going to, you have interacted with somebody from that organization seven times in a digital or a person, a person per person, the person verbally.
00:28:03 And so Publix has always been great at that, but I think like at least 20 employees came up to me and they said, Hey, do you want to try this sample? Hey, how's your day going? Hey, welcome to Publix. Hey, welcome to Nashville. Hey, can I carry your bags? Hey, I only after this [inaudible] than triple down on that rule, huh? Yeah. They like, it's like 21 points for this podcast we talked about, you know, how awkward could we make a a, a Publix employee trying to carry out our bags? What are the most awkward items that we could bring that a Publix employee might not want to bring out our bags? Tweet us at X PLR underscored Nat, let us know the items that you would purchase to make an employee who might carry out your bag seal just a little bit uncomfortable. We'd love to know.
00:28:53 We came up with some pretty weird stuff, but we want to see what you've come up with. Yeah. So speaking of the Gulch, this is a found on the Nashville post and it says NYC company pays 6.9 million for North Gulch site. I would say this building has become an eyesore driving down church street. This used to be the old Gibson sales room. You guys know the building I'm talking about right in church street in the Gulch. It's ugly. Brick building is a representation of when Gibson wa went bankrupt. Absolutely not. So it's just kind of a weird piece of property that just everybody knew it needed to go. And I think it was waiting until the Dorth Gulch was a little bit more developed and we're bridging the gap between the, the Goldston, the North Gulch and this era. This piece of property really kind of now fits
00:29:42 That, that puzzle piece.
00:29:43 And they're planning, Oh, this is cool. So they're planning a Marriott international their one of their hotels. It's gonna be an addiction.
00:29:51 Go figure. It's a Marriott, right? Yeah, we talked about that. I think in our last, in our last podcast, Friday or Thursday last week that we talked about how many, how many properties Marion has now in downtown Nashville
00:30:03 Audition hotel is one of like their boutique hotel projects. It's super interesting. I've never been in one because they're relatively new brand for Maryanne's. So I'm just excited to see that turn into a hotel. I think that's really logical with the Tennessee and, and being knocked down that apartment complex. Now the only thing that needs to move from the gulches and yes. Yup. I don't think that's happening anytime soon. Cause I saw an article, I think it was last week. They're building a brand new substation in the North Gulch and they're going to cover it with like a wall that's gonna be painted with like the predators, logos and players. It's going to be look really cool.
00:30:42 Interesting. Well, speaking of public utilities in the Tennessee and we've got an article that, that talks about Nashville water customers, and that's going to be pretty much, you know, anybody listening, you're paying for Nashville water your rate for a water monthly is probably going to increase and this comes from infrastructure needed to be updated. And there's apparently a raise in price back in 2011. But I think that one was not as strong as this one's going to be. The estimate is going to be a little bit over $9 for your increase in water bill every month. But that's pretty significant, I believe, because I don't think the water bill is that high to begin with. And so adding $9 does that in a pretty large percentage. I mean, most people aren't going to, you know, say, Hey, please don't give me water anymore because of this. And I think they know that. But it's, it's pretty, it's a necessity. It's a pretty significant increase compared to the original cost of a water bill.
00:31:44 Yeah. I I don't know what the water bills look like as individual homes cause I've never lived in a home here in Nashville. All of my water bills have been based on a shared experience with my apartment complex. Yeah. So basically the apartment complexes uses this much water and then everyone pays a portion of that big bill.
00:32:03 Yeah. So it'll be interesting to see. Cooper really has not said much. He said he's, he's reviewing the study and considering all the options, you know, that that really says we'll get back to you kind of thing. But it'll be interesting to see if that ends up being the final method. I believe it will. I know I'm going to go up. I know Metro's not in a position to say, Hey, the city's really going to cover the cost on this one. They're really not in a position to say that. So it's just, it's interesting to see that water bills don't go up with inflation or anything that they seem to be, Hey, once every 10 years, we're just going to take a look at it and see if we need to increase the rate, which is what it seems like. I may be wrong, but that's kind of what it's reading like to me. So it's just very interesting.
00:32:52 Speaking of Cooper, we all know if we've talked about this quite on the podcast yet but he became mayor almost when he's been a mayor of now for 10 days, give or take. Yeah. But he talked about that executive order that David Briley passed about the sanctuary city. So Cooper is now looking at it and over a 90 day period before he makes a decision. So that executive order and then something else that happened with immigration. Cooper is taking a 90 day look at it and the housing bill that David Briley passed for the $750 million to build 10,000 homes here in Nashville for low income housing. So Cooper is taking a re 90 day review on all three of those topics.
00:33:34 Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. Well at least it's good to see that Cooper is at least saying, Hey, these are the things that I'm addressing right away. And doesn't hit us with the big
00:33:45 Surprise like barley did at the end of his term. Yeah. Sorry. So Blas every single day. We love the cover a different tip on how you would experience the city of Nashville. If you had a guest coming to visit you, so Blas, how would you show somebody Nashville.
00:34:00 Right. So this is and I'll just kind of go based off of the experience of when my nephew kinda came into town and just kind of how the approach, so that was like two or three months ago. Right. Okay. Yeah. So he came to visit from California probably the first time he's ever been now to California, honestly. So he had no idea what the South was like. You know, what all, you know, just kind of entailed like what the city was all about and stuff like that. So my approach was, you know, I picked him up from the airport, drove him around the city just to kind of get a look at it. Just a quick glimpse of like, you know, just the things that are going on here. Yeah. From there we went to a local restaurant. I believe we went to we went to was it Hattie B's? It was Hattie B's. Yeah. Because my brother actually is a big hot chicken fan and he actually does his own hot chicken. I told him in California it's called smoking Jays. Oh, that's all. He does an amazing job. I know I've showed you some pictures of it's beautiful. He doesn't do chicken with the word beautiful. [inaudible]
00:35:02 So he came over here and he wanted to explore the hot chicken scene. So I took him over to to Hattie B's and he had the hot chicken. You said my brother's is better, which I was like, I'll be the judge of that. I've had had chicken in many, many of these you know, many locations maybe fighting words. I agree. Yeah, I agree. And when he said that I was blown away, I was like, really? And I was like, okay, okay. I'm definitely gonna have to try that out as soon as I go home. Yeah, back to visit. But, so your brother's only been making hot chicken for how long now? I would say probably about six months. So it's relatively new, relatively new. He's got like a little pop up Stan and trying to get a food truck and stuff like that. Tailgating with it and [inaudible] awesome. Yeah, he does some amazing stuff. He does. He does like hot chicken with like brisket on it and just, I mean, just going above and beyond when you go into California. [inaudible]
00:35:56 Was supposed to be there this weekend actually, but it, or this past weekend I was supposed to go, so didn't get a chance to go. But yeah, so the way I kind of approached it as I, I just drove him around the city, like, Hey, just a little teaser for them. Took them to a local, a local restaurant. Like I said, had he BS. He's a big hot chicken guy. So I wanted him to try some Nashville hot chicken that I felt was a, was up to par. From there which kind of went back home and that next morning I wanted, the approach that I took was I wanted him to kind of see what Nashville was not necessarily was, but just kinda what it had to offer from like, you know, just driving around. But I wanted to take him from the outside in. That's a great way to experience Nashville. You get dizzy that way though.
00:36:42 Slowly making your way to elaborate on that. So obviously I drove him around in the car. We went in our local spot that next morning. What I mean by outside in was I wanted to show him what's outside of Nashville first and then slowly bring him into the city. So he can have like an appreciation for what is around the city and not get fixated on just the bright lights and like, you know, all this, that, and the other. Absolutely. Because I think that's what happens. Like a lot of people when they come to visit, they immediately go to Broadway. They immediately, and that's all they know and learn and that's what they stick to. Exactly. So I wanted him to like experience the mat, like not necessarily the madness within the city, but just having an appreciation for the surrounding areas. So I took him to a, to a local waterfall that I found on the explore page.
00:37:31 Yeah, you went to greeter falls, right? Yeah, we went to Grieder on our YouTube channel, right. Waterfalls near Nashville video calls. He did. So that's exactly what I did actually. Before he came here I was like, Hey, listen, I'm here. Here are some local waterfalls. I want you to choose one and then and we'll go to it as soon as you get here. And that's exactly what he did. So we experienced that waterfall and then we slowly worked our way into the city in Nashville. I mean, like I said, waterfall, Broadway showed them that stuff, you know, ate at the local restaurants within the city country music hall of fame. Like, and like I said, I think, I think if you, if you take an opportunity to just kind of spend the day outside of Nashville before you kind of, you know, come into the city and, and get like, you know, just overwhelmed with all it has to offer. Like, trust me, there's a lot to do and it's, and it's amazing, but take some time to experience it from the outside in. So, yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, even for me, I've been here six years and you
00:38:36 Know, before I met Stewart, like really, there was a lot of stuff that I didn't know existed. I knew some of the stuff like the the Hermitage and some of the historical stuff. But you know, you, you do kind of have a magnet to, okay, there's a, there's a thriving downtown, so let me just go downtown and see what happens kind of thing. But if you, if you don't have a perspective of going, like you said, from that outside in, you know, you kinda get stuck going to those, those spots that you've known and you don't get to see what else is out there.
00:39:10 Right. And I can speak for myself as well. When I first moved to Tennessee or back to Tennessee, I lived in Hendersonville and it wasn't until I met Aaron and got introduced to Stewart and following their page. I had been following their page before I actually became friends with them and I relied on that YouTube channel a lot just to, that's amazing man. Thank you so much. Yeah, 100% man. Like anytime, like I was coming into the city or you know, close to the city I got on YouTube, I typed in, you know, top five restaurants or Hey, I want to, I want a good burger. Like, let me try to like see what's on YouTube. And those videos helped so much in narrowing down my search and the way you guys do a good job of just kind of like putting the food on display. Stuart,
00:39:54 I promise you are a close second
00:39:58 To watching eat right next to Homer Simpson
00:40:04 [Inaudible]
00:40:04 SIM city. And I'm like, I need to go. I need to eat a donut.
00:40:09 It's funny, but man, I enjoy especially your hot chicken video. I thought, Oh my God, you're going to die man. I'll do it. I almost died. I almost, I like, I literally, this is maybe too much information, but, so I had the bees, their hottest and then I had party foul and I think we did another one and it was like their hottest all on the same week. Yeah, I think that was 400 degrees. Yeah. I regretted my entire life and every decision I ever made, any time I'd mentioned hot chicken after that story, we were like, Oh, literally I was crying in the middle of the night. That's how bad it got. A few times
00:40:46 Is there. I've had the opportunity to, to have lunch with these guys and stuff like that. And they're big hot chicken guys too. So
00:40:52 We went to the party and you get the hottest one in our Mark. No gloss, don't [inaudible]. You'll sit at another table, facial expressions when he's watching me and I just see him shaking his head like having flashbacks to like moments of him eating and stuff. So it's super funny. But on that video I almost choked on the heavy BS video portion of it on their hottest one. That's shut the clock up. Well, yeah. Okay. So I'll, I'll say this and I don't think we've talked about this yet. It's good.
00:41:22 Whenever we filmed at Hattie B's we, we did our first take and then [inaudible] not talked about this. The
00:41:34 The audio for that first take didn't report. It got corrupted. It got corrupted I think. I think Lexa, the storage was full or something and so we got done and we were like, we don't have any audio. And so I think Stewart just like, I think that started the, the hot chicken anxiety. Then the first bite though, the first bite, it had all that powder on. It was like, yeah, we can paprika. And I took the bite and what you guys did see in the video is the PR rep was sitting right behind me like, see, we need to put this out. But the PR rep was sitting right behind me and I'm like, and I took a bite of this hot chicken, I will immediately choked. I'm like, Oh. And I looked back and I'm like, Oh yes, this is so good. Yeah. So, so you know, obviously we didn't have any audio. We had to do all chicken and patties. Good again. That's amazing. And so the steward got a double dose at Hattie B's today and that's how I ended up beating that entire tender. Yeah, shut the clock up. Tinder. I will never do it again. I think that was what pushed it over the level is the having to do that scene twice I think. I think I cried a little bit in that video, but I think I went home and I really cried.
00:42:50 But it's not the worst thing I ever ate,
00:42:52 The worst thing I ever ate. So there's this up North, there's this wing joint called Quaker state and lube is all like this NASCAR theme, like wing place.
00:43:00 There's a there's a Quaker steak and lube, I think it was in Gatlinburg. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:43:08 Lewis. Wow. so they have one that's called like atomic nuclear. Something has like six names in it and [inaudible] you guys know how peppers are measured right on the Scoville unit here. So the Scoble unit is this measurement of the spice of a pepper seed. Cause that's where you get your spices in your seeds. Yeah. And so the Scoville unit, the typical like jalapeno, I can't remember, I think it's like 20,000 for a jalapeno. This Scoble unit on this chicken I had was over a million Scoville units. I took a bite of this chicken. Are you sure it was a pepper and not extract? I have no idea what it was. I took a bite of this chicken immediately. My face became red. Tears started running down my face, my throat closed. And so I'm sitting in this restaurant, literally choking and my boss came over and gave me like the Heimlich remover and then the manager ran out. I had signed a contract for this one. The manager, the manager of the restaurant ran out and he had a huge bowl of vanilla ice cream. He's like, you need to eat this now. I
00:44:08 Think it helped, but I was there. Just sit down and start pretending to show you what happens when you're gonna get a big bowl of ice cream. But that was my worst food experience. But how the bees eating that, that second time is definitely up in my top five. What I will say though, and again I don't think I, I don't think I've ever told you guys, but you guys have have really made it super easy for anybody visiting,
00:44:32 You know, my family included and stuff like that when they've come to visit just by the content and the videos that you guys are putting out there. You guys do a really good job of just eliminating like the Google searching and stuff like that. It's like in the TripAdvisor lists, he can't figure out from that terrible, you guys literally get right to the point. It's like, thank you. You know, not like this drawn out video. Like it's just like, Hey, these are, these are some of the spots we recommend. Boom, boom, boom. I mean it's a five minute video. Like where not only are you going to get educated on the restaurant itself, but like you're going to, you're going to get different options and you're gonna get to see what the food looks like before you even go in. Yeah. Ain't no real, like in real life, it's not going to be like some, you know, fancy picture or anything like that. Like, no, this is what the food looks like. This is what you can expect. And I just wanted to say, I appreciate that.
00:45:21 Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, that's the, one of the things when we started, it was like, we, you know, we travel incredible distances to do this even though we're in the city. Like, we're at the car.
00:45:33 Oh, a lot. We've, I've done a 20,000 miles on Subaru almost in a year.
00:45:38 Yeah. And you know, but that's because the value of seem something before you go somewhere, you know, is just insane how much it makes a difference. Because you get to, apart from like putting on an Oculus headset and seeing it in a three D environment, like that's as close as you're going to get 100%. And so, you know, we'll get close, we get really close. And you know, we'll just go into place and, and you know, film to the best of our abilities, but it does, it makes a difference to see the food. And especially we're doing doughnuts. You'll be able to see the size of the donuts and him Stewart's hand and you'll be able to, you know, we're, we're, we're doing the video and Stuart has a donut in his hand for every take and you're able to see, you know what, what that actually looks,
00:46:26 That's a hundred layer croissant donut every time. So like every time I'm on the tour, Oh, if like a group of like 15 or 20, I'm, we're always on 12 South and we're passing $5 bakery. And I'm like, this place, let me tell you about this place.
00:46:40 It's like you're around children. It's a story. Let me tell you this story about this
00:46:44 Donuts. This place has hundred lay or croissant doughnuts and they have a donut called the King Kong donuts. It's a hundred layers of croissants with this vanilla cream and maple bacon on top. Incredible. And everyone's like, can we stop?
00:46:58 Can we stop? Yeah. That reminds me of a, of the tour guide that we had at Ruby falls. He's like, it's not going to,
00:47:04 The balls are not going to look impressive at first because the light show is really low. And then
00:47:09 The lights and the lights are going to come on and every, you're going to say, Ooh, ah, and everything like that. So it's like predictable kind of pattern. And it did the lights turn on and we all, ah, let's get that waterfall. It's same with the donut. 100 layers. Ooh. Ah, ah, right. Saying all the right things. That's a 2% freshly from the cow. Let me get a napkin. You're drilling a little bit. All right. So every single day we love to where you finish off your tip of the day by the way. Blas.
00:47:39 Yeah. Well I would just, like I said, my main tip of the day is just start from the out, start from the outside in. Like give them a little tease around downtown. Take them around like in the car, just like, Hey, look at this. This is what the city looks like real quick. You know, don't worry, we'll dive in, but let's, let's go. Let's take a trip outside and then we'll come back in.
00:47:56 That's a great way to experience Nashville. It really is. So every single day we love to highlight a different creator of the day. And boss, you're a creator yourself. So who is one of your creators in town that you're inspired by?
00:48:08 Oh man, this is such a hard, a hard a hard question because I dive into a little bit of everything. So there have been Def, there have definitely been a few different creators that have inspired me. But I would say like the person who's, who's really inspired me as of late and just wanting to just kind of dial all my stuff in on a portrait level. But I would say is Jeff Carpenter at ready light media. Okay. he's a YouTuber, isn't he? He's a YouTuber as well. And what I love about his page is not only does he take amazing photos and portraits and stuff, so there's photos on their next level, but what I love is the insider, like the behind the scenes stuff that he gives you. And he does it in a way where it's just, it's not over the top, it's not over done, but it really simplifies anybody who's looking to dive into, you know, getting into studio style portraits and stuff like that.
00:49:00 Like the guy's giving you all his tips and tricks. Most of his Instagram seems to be behind the scenes. Right. And it's just incredible that somebody at that level was willing to just kind of let you, you know, behind the curtain. And see and see like I think that is amazing because somebody at that level and with that level of talent you would think they'd want to kind of hold those secrets and stuff like that close to them. But now I just kind of puts it out there and I have you find his account. Actually just, I found him, I found him just scrolling through the explore page. I just saw an amazing, amazing portrait that really caught my eye and I just clicked on his channel and then started watching some stuff. And one of his IgE TVs I saw that he was wearing, actually I love Franklin shirt, which is a cross point, Crosspoint TV cross point church.
00:49:49 And I was like, Oh man, this guy's, this guy's local, like he's gotta be local. Oh that's cool. So I just kinda dive into his program or his, his profile and stuff like that. I actually reached out to him and he offers courses out of at a very reasonable price. So I just kind of contacted her mind like one on one course. It's one on one. So he has he has some group seminars that he does, I believe out in LA and he kind of travels and stuff like that. But he does do one on one coaching at a very, very affordable price in my opinion for that level of, of like professionalism and stuff. And like he, I believe he even, he includes catering and a model for you to shoot as well. That's fantastic. And it's just, it's incredible. So like six hours one-on-one or is it an hour?
00:50:38 I believe he's got two different options to where it's like there's a half day and a full day, I think a full days, eight hours and you're just, you're just learning the entire time. That's really cool. And I would, I would challenge any creator out there. Like I know we all have our specialties in, you know, where we feel comfortable and stuff like that, but just, you know, don't be afraid to step outside of that comfort zone and explore a different type of creativity, whether it's portraits, whether it's video, whether it's landscape Boca, it just, you know, do your best to be well rounded. Cause, I mean that's what, that's what, that's what this is all about is just creating like different forms of content. You know, just exploring that creative side, you know, outside of your comfort zone. Cause we can all get complacent at times.
00:51:21 Yeah. So to talk about that real quick, we have a explore me coming up on October 29th, we're going to do it at Cornelia for airport, which is an abandoned airport here in the city of Nashville. And we're hopefully bringing in an expert that specializes in outdoor, low light photography. So that's just a great way to come learn and me the creative community here in the city of Nashville.
00:51:43 Right. And there's like, no, there's no better way to learn in my opinion than then being onsite with somebody you can ask the questions to and get her like a direct response. And just really, really kind of just answer your question. Cause I mean there had been multiple times where I've reached out to creators to try and help or watching a YouTube video that just, it's just too vague. You know, there's more questions that I have, or there's questions that I'm like, well, why, you know, and they're not, they're not always going to answer those questions for you. But yeah, I would definitely encourage anybody who's interested in that type of photography or any type of photography you're creating in general to explore these explore meets. Because like I said, I've benefited from them and stuff like that and just kind of learning, so, yeah.
00:52:23 Yeah. And it's just one of those things, you know, that, you know, you see creators but rarely on Instagram and you know, Hey, you know, they're shooting the same stuff I am, or, or they're, they're in the same environments that I am. And I, I really like what they're doing. You know, but you're like, I don't want to just like talk to them and, and, you know, make it feel like I'm trying to just like get stuff from them. Like, but you know, these are, these are ways that you can meet the people that you're constantly seeing in your local community. Yeah. And just, you know, build that friendly relationship.
00:52:58 Put a face to that Instagram. I mean, I mean we all as creators sometimes are, our work overshadows just kind of like the person that we are. Yeah. And the relationships and like when you get to these explore meets, you get to meet these people and you get to create with them. And that's one thing I'll say about like the Nashville community, the creative community, like coming from Los Angeles in a big market like that, it's pretty competitive and I don't really, I don't necessarily see anything like this over there where creators are kind of getting together. But what I love about Nashville is like everybody is always willing to work together and help. Like anytime I meet her creator, they're just like, dude, I love your stuff. Like, Hey, like, Oh, like let's, let's shoot together or let's do this. Like some of the, some of my friendships now I would say like a large portion of them actually are creators here in Nashville that I've met through explore. And there'd be days whenever, like my schedule is not too busy that I get to go and create with them. That's it. Yeah, yeah.
00:53:53 That's so cool. And that's, and that's the reason we started that community is so it's community like that friendships,
00:54:00 Relationships like that. Yep. So again, creator of the day is Jeff Carpenter a, he's at ready light media. His work is truly phenomenal. Even if you don't have a camera and you just want to take portraits with your phone and just figured out a new iPhone, you had some sick, a lot of the techniques you're gonna gonna learn, have to do with lighting and stuff with don't even involve your camera, just involves how to use light. And you can do that with any device that can capture an image. So go give Jeff Carpenter at ready light media a follow go deleted meme account at the same time. Let's balance this out a little bit. Keep Instagram alive for just another day. And we'll move on to some more food.
00:54:41 Yes. So every single day we like to cover a place locally that we ate here in the city of Nashville. Over the weekend, my wife Amanda and I celebrated our one year anniversary, which are delicious. Thank you. It's insane that we've been married for a year. It's been a heck of a journey. It's a lot of fun. But we went to Pinewood social and I got some avocado toast. I do have it still me. And this avocado toast has a hard boil egg on top of it. It's so good. And then they have crema, coffee and it's just, it's a great place.
00:55:14 You know, sometimes I I kind of kick myself at times for like having avocado toast, but for some reason it just tastes so much better than arrests.
00:55:25 [Inaudible] I'm really basic. Yeah, you guys know this. I, I drink a lot of pumpkin spice and I just, there's a whole level of basically just comes at blessed. Yesterday he told me, he's like, I've been trying to will fall into existence by wearing long sleeves and hoodies and everything. [inaudible] And that's what I did. Cause I walked out yesterday in a, in a long sleeve shirt and I was like 92, I just want to wear this. So happy to see you actually in that outfit. And I'm like, I'm not the only one. I'm trying to will it into existence, but enough of us do it. Maybe the weather will listen. I met, I met with Michael Johnson, we had him on the episode. He talked about the nudist colony
00:56:07 With them last week and he's like, say goodbye to my Flamingo shoe shirt because fall shirts comes out. [inaudible]
00:56:14 Yeah, I think we're all just trying to get rid of this weather somehow. We're just trying to do our part here. Aaron, where'd you eat locally? All right, so this was last week, had honey fire
00:56:24 This was my second time having honey fire. Honey fire had an event where the owner of hunting fire and the owner of husk came together. That's like an incredible collaborator. What a combination do. They hosted a, a dinner that was benefiting people loving Nashville, a community that every Monday they go to war Memorial and serve food to homeless. Honey fire and Shane, the owner of a hundred fire announced there that hunting fire's going to be giving a honey fire food to people loving Nashville once a month for their, their mission. So that's absolutely, it's absolutely [inaudible]
00:56:57 Growing up, I remember you mentioned it a few times, just a few. This is the first time having your, that they're a banana,
00:57:03 Right? Yeah. Oh my gosh. That, I think that's the thing that I actually loved the most. There is their peanut butter banana pudding in it has a another butter inside of it and it's undescribable it's literally undescribed amazing. If I were them, I would have changed that one giant Nutter butter into the little circle. One of the ones. Oh yeah. That's the kind of sprinkle it throughout. But it was, it was a really cool event. Apparently they had another collaboration event in the past with how do you BS and be doing this like once a month shame. If you're listening to Nashville daily, we can't wait to have you on the podcast. And from what I heard from somebody who went to that first one, it was a smoked by Shane chicken sausage made by, and then it was a fried by Hattie B's. Oh. And then the hot chicken spices were put on it and then barbecue rub. Bye bye honey fire it was put on top of
00:58:00 My jaw was literally dropped right now I have to pick it up off the floor guys. This is why I'm like, I'm so glad winners come [inaudible] so you can wear hoodies. [inaudible] Can you eat that over the weekend? Oh man. So I, I felt like I had a little taste of the home, you know, thanks to the recommendation of [inaudible] guys. I'm, he has, you know, told me I should try out a Oscar's tacos that you think, Oh, that you wanted my opinion on it then how, how close it was to like California Mexican food since they are from California. Right. so I took your guesses, advice and that went to [inaudible] tacos and was absolutely blown away. I had to sit there with a big old smile on your face. He ended the whole time I did and I loved that. It's just a, a a scooter right away. [inaudible]
00:58:50 Street on your way out. Right. And Oscars, it's so good and it feels so good to finally have like a, an authentic, you know, in California style Mexican experience, like 100% I had the burrito without buy store. I'm so good. That's my favorite burrito. There's incredible knowings. Eight o'clock in the morning sometimes I'm just like, I want that burrito. So on the way out, I was like, I should probably get another one for later on the night. Like this is so good, but I can't tell you how excited I am to have that restaurant so close to me. I need
00:59:21 To just make a morning run habit to run the Oscars, get their breakfast, pick you up. Yeah. Yeah. Anybody, anybody from California who has moved to Nashville and is looking for is everybody. Yeah, exactly. Everybody. California and New York or Pennsylvania. Yeah, I would say yeah, give Oscars tacos a try. It's a, it's a great taste of home and I think you guys like it.
00:59:47 This episode of Nashville daily is brought to you by screened to threads, screen threads, Zay, Nashville, curious shop located in historic marathon village. Use code Nashville daily to get 10% off your next online order. Their website is screened to threads.com or go in person mentioned this ad in store and you get 10% off as well. All right, so Blas,
01:00:08 We're going to kind of get deeper into who you are and what you've been doing and kind of what you're up to now. But like I mentioned it in the, in the teaser earlier, you know, you went from shooting guns to shooting other things. You were, you know, you obviously in the army and you know but then you transitioned out and then you started getting into videography and, you know, kind of this media creation world. What is that transition been like and how does that kind of help you transition into this kind of new Nashville life?
01:00:45 Yeah, 100%. And I'll kind of start off with Nick just telling you how I kinda got into it in general. So, you know, while I was stationed in Hawaii before I had went there, I did a lot of YouTube watching and watch these creators, you know, just creating these Epic travel videos of, of Hawaii and stuff like that. So it definitely inspired me to want to purchase like my first GoPro. Yeah. So that's exactly what I did. Before I moved to Hawaii, I purchased a GoPro and took it everywhere under the sun hero to hero. This was hero for go pro hero for I had purchased and took it everywhere I went. On all the hikes that I went to, created some videos with it, you know, ticket diving, that's all, just seeing the fish and stuff like that.
01:01:30 It just got to a point where I was like, okay, I'm, I'm kinda ready to just, you know, up the quality level a little bit and like I'm wanting to do a little bit more with it. So I, I purchased my first camera and thanks to the help of my buddy. Sam you know, give me some advice on some cameras to purchase and stuff like that. I was able to purchase my first Sony camera which Sony was up. That was the Sony a seven S two. My reason for choosing that full. Yeah. My reason for choosing them. That's an incredible story. Yeah. I just always have, if I'm going to go in, I'm going to go in and I wanted a good hybrid that was a photo that's video and photo perfect for them. Great. And low light. I did not want, like if I was going to purchase something, I wanted a good hybrid all around that I wasn't really going to have too many limitations or something that I couldn't shoot in.
01:02:20 So that was kind of my approach in purchasing a camera. So I went with a Sony, a seven S too. And just started just diving into YouTube university and just really, really dedicating time when I wasn't you know, at work or in the military. I had some time off. I was definitely just watching tutorials and stuff like that and, and trying to create now in making the transition out of the military and moving to Nashville, I wanted to continue to pursue that. I had done some real estate stuff while I was in Nashville and I just felt like that was kinda my lane. So when moving to Nashville I was like, okay, in Hawaii did real estate stuff. I did, I did. And I had a pretty good opportunity that they kinda came into my lap where I got to shoot for HGTV.
01:03:01 And it was at that point they kind of solidified like, okay, maybe, maybe I am pretty good at this, you know, somebody definitely values my work at a super high production level. So he gave me the confidence that I needed to go ahead and take that next step. So were you doing like houses in Hawaii? So I was I was shooting some, some real estate on, on my off time in the military. I had an opportunity with a local realtor there that, you know, wanted, wanted some content done and I wanted to show her houses in a different light. And anybody who's been in Hawaii, like there's not really a big like video. There's a video, there's a video market, but it's more focused on the Island or not so much like, you know,
01:03:45 Anything else? Anything else? Yeah, exactly. And that's reflective of whenever you go to, and anybody who travels might know this, but you know, when you go to a new location, one of the things you do, if you're, if you post on Instagram, you try to see, you know, who's creating, who's creating out there and big indication and how many other feature accounts of an area there are. And when I went to Hawaii I was like, this place is probably just over-saturated 100% and and with, with feature accounts, but they're not feature accounts in Hawaii. There are just a few compared to Nashville with 10 hospitals to 50 now. I would say it's even more. Yeah, I literally discovered four more last week and it's insane. I think it's probably close to 75 feature accounts on that is absolutely insane. And, and Nashville I think just just has that creator vibe and that's what's contributed to that. And Hawaii, everybody's just focused on just that oversaturated, just sand and water. Exactly. 100%, you know, that's really all you saw. And I think that's, that's why there's really not that much that was different out there.
01:04:51 100%. And what was great though is like not only did you, were you able to kind of capture the, that, the beauty, that scenery, but you were able to bring it into like, you know, real estate showing the landscape and stuff like that. And that's what I tried to do and she definitely loved that. So that really opened the door for me to just kind of explore that creative side in real estate. In moving to Nashville, I can't necessarily say that like I was inspired move to Nashville for like the creative opportunity. I really had no idea of what the creative community looked like out here. Yeah. I really moved here because you know, the impact that the city had on me on a personal level. And I really wanted to explore my faith. So those were huge parts in me making that transition.
01:05:36 I knew I still wanted to create here and I was like, Oh, I'll create, you know, for local realtors and stuff like that. And just try to like continue to do that. What, what, what blew me away is the creative community once I got here. And once I started to explore that a little bit which really opened the door for me a lot in meeting Aaron I think was really just kind of that boost that I needed and you really helped me, not only like inspired me but like has taken what I knew on a creative level to the next level, you know?
01:06:10 Yeah. And I think we met at that intersection that you were looking for because we met across point. Right? Right. You know, you were exploring your faith and we met, you know, we volunteer on the camera's in there together and you know, being able to do both at the same time I think really kind of sparked that, that friendship.
01:06:27 Yeah. 100%. Yeah, I would definitely, definitely agree with that. Yeah. We met at cross point through, you know, just serving on the camera team together. And it just is developed into the friendship that it is today. But I definitely I definitely looked up to you. You definitely still look up to you, especially like your creative outlook your storytelling ability and just like the true professional that you are behind that camera and in the editing room and as a person. So I definitely tried to to just kind of learn from you and stuff like that and I think you helped me and taken my my creative side of the next level. So I appreciate that.
01:07:04 Yeah. How do you feel your, your expertise and your knowledge that you gained in the military has translated into being a creator?
01:07:13 Wow, that's a, that's a great question. I think it's translated in a way that I've seen different, different places, different cultures. And being on the ground a lot and being in what I mean by being on the ground and is like laying on the ground, sleeping on the ground and you get to see the world from a different, a different people, different days or just sleeping on mountains, you know, you get to, you get to experience that view and stuff like that. And it's just really helped me open my eyes cause as a, as a creator like you know, sometimes we can get you know, we can just kinda near side and just locked in on just staying on the street. You know, it's, when you get in a down on the ground, it's when you get in those high places.
01:07:56 Yeah. I love seeing you. I like to explore me. It's cause they like you're on the ground like rolling with your camera photos. Yeah. I think it was a, the one Boca explore me. Like there was all that like, like kind of like throw up and like broken bottles and you're like, Oh, like, and it [inaudible] that's disgusting. Yeah. That's it. That's the first thing I had ask only you
01:08:15 Knew [inaudible] before. This is, yeah, yeah. That, that's one of the like getting into those different respect perspective as the first thing I tell my students is, you know, get into your mind, change your, your, your phone, your natural tendency, especially with, you know, them just having phones at that point. Hold that phone in front of your face and that's, that's what they're doing. And then taking that picture. And you know, I was like, if anything, you know, find a different angle to, to take a picture from. So yeah, you came in with that experience, which definitely helped a lot.
01:08:46 It definitely did. And just, I mean it is so, so funny to just kind of look at the developmental process of my creative side and how much it has grown since moving to Nashville and surrounding yourself with like minded people. And you know,
01:09:00 What's the, what's the difference between looking through a scope and through a camera on the radicals, the number
01:09:07 [Inaudible] and a, I mean, you're still gonna target that target just changes in different ways. There's still foreground there's still elements of lane on the ground. Yeah. Probably not wind speed. [inaudible] I can't find my wind speed. Exactly. No, but it is, it is pretty cool to, to kind of take a step back and look at that and knowing that I came from behind a rifle and now I'm kind of behind the lens and he's still shooting, shooting. You know, it's fun. It's definitely cool. Two, two extremes I feel like to, to be in yeah, nothing comes out of a camera. Yeah. Nothing, nothing comes out of a camera outside of a beautiful image, but it's just a whole nother side, right? Like, I mean, I think, you know, when people think military, they think like, you know, just, you know, aggressive, like blah, blah, blah. But there's just a certain level of like creativity and beauty and art that come from behind the camera and it's just polar opposites, I feel like, you know, but still same in the same way, you know? But yeah, it was cool. I never thought you know, this talent or this creative side wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't discovered till later on. You know, it wasn't something that I, I knew that, that I had an eye for or anything like that. It just kind of fell into it. Yeah.
01:10:30 I think just speaking that for a second, I think our society, I think everyone is created to be creative. But I think our society really limits our creativity and to the point where it's, Hey, you work this nine to five job, Hey, you do this, you do that.
01:10:46 You'd never get that chance to really, you stay in, yeah.
01:10:49 Stay in these lines and you don't go out of those lines because you'll be looked down upon and you'd be picked on. And I just, a lot of people now are discovering like, Oh wow, I actually can create something. I can use my creative side of things.
01:11:04 Yeah. And yeah, many people just haven't had the opportunity to explore it. Yeah. And so when you do, you really get a chance to go down the lines you never you would before and opens up lots of new opportunities and new things and, and if anybody, you guys should go to blossoms Instagram account [inaudible] Hernandez underscore because the videos you've been ruined. [inaudible] Oh my gosh. And your storytelling and everything that has, has evolved since since I've met you. It's just been mind blowing and this stuff is amazing. So you guys make sure to go to go follow Blas, just have to follow his work as well. But boss, you're also, you know, transitioning into some new things that are happening. You know, what's, what's, you know, what is five years going gonna look like for you in the future?
01:11:53 Wow. Five years from now, five years from now. Let's see. I'm, I'm definitely enjoying my time creating especially in the space that I am right now and working with you know, busting with the boys podcast and stuff like that. I'm definitely [inaudible] yeah, shout out to the boys, bustling with the boys podcast. If you guys aren't, aren't following or listening, you guys should definitely go and do that. I'm having a blast doing that. I mean just being able to do the visuals and stuff like that for, for that podcast has been been amazing. But what, five years down the road looks like. I definitely will still be creating but in my heart right now, I still feel like I have, you know, that fire burning inside me that I want to serve. So I I will definitely be exploring those opportunities in the near future.
01:12:47 You know, to see, you know, where that kind of leads me. I think I was put on this earth to, to serve and I want to continue serving, but I would love to serve in a smaller capacity at the local level, the community level, to see that direct impact in the military. You have, you know, a global impact. So it's kind of hard to see you know, what you're doing. I think serving with local law enforcement and stuff like that, you're able to see the direct impact on community and stuff like that and change lives. And you know, that's, that's a fire that's steel still burning inside me that I, I I don't want to ignore. I will always be a creator at heart and I'll still continue to create. But I do feel like that is my true purpose in calling.
01:13:33 Yeah. Awesome. And you're still, you're still learning and, and continue. Your brain's not stopping 24 hours a day. You're, you're about to finish school.
01:13:41 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a full time student as well. So create you know, from the earlier, from early morning to about 6:00 PM where I go into the classroom and and just, you just, I can't, I can't ever do anything just kinda kind of halfway, you know, I just kinda dive in and I go all out. I try to keep myself pretty busy. So yeah, I'm just trying to ex, you know, just accomplish those goals that are set out and set in front of me and and see where takes me one of the biggest things that I want to leave the audience with this. I think one of the coolest things that you said, you didn't even know that it was, it was something cool that you, you said, cause we were talking about a lot of career options and stuff for you.
01:14:23 And you said, you know, if there's a, an acronym for how you want to have backup plans and everything shared that because that was really cool. And I think everybody would benefit from that. So, so in the military we a, and again, a lot of the I O credit a lot of who I am today to my service and stuff like that, but I definitely believe it, it built a foundation for who I am, but I don't want it to be my, my, my end LBO and what I'm known for. But one of the things I learned in the military was a pace plan and a pace plan, kind of, you know, it was used in many different forms, but one of the most like recognized forms of use was for communications. So there's primary alternate contingency and emergency and that's pace. So the way I've kind of approached my, like things in my life and in a career aspect is to have different plans and set in place.
01:15:18 So my primary, you know, would be like, you know, you know what I do. Right, right. And you know, let's, let's just say, let's just throw it out there. Okay. So my primary right now is, you know, as a creator, you know, let's say, let's say busting with the boys podcast is my primary. I need to have an alternate. Okay, I need to have a backup. If something goes wrong with bustling with the boys, what do I have to fall back on? Right. I have my education, you know, my education is something that I can definitely fall back on and use. Okay. So what, what happens if you can't find a job with your education? Well, I have my long, my, my military experience to fall back on, which I can explore law enforcement opportunities, bam. You know, and then just, you know, our emergency, you know, your emergency could be, you know, obviously, you know, you have the work experience and stuff like that, but you want to have something in place and that's always going to be my creative ability, my creative ability to go and seek out clients, you know, in the portfolio that I have, you know, to be able to make a living and get income if I absolutely need to.
01:16:26 So I think if you take that approach in life and you have those conditions set for yourself, whether you're trying to explore that creative opportunity, make sure you have those contingencies in place. All right, so if you're trying to be a creator, you know, obviously you have your primary source of income, which is your job, you know, always have that in place, you know, have your education to fall back on, you know, and then just those local connections that you've made, you know, through meeting people in relationships where you know you can lean on those people. If, if worst comes to worse, you'll always have that as a source of income. So I think setting those conditions before you decide to explore these opportunities as a full time filmmaker, full time photographer will definitely benefit you and give you the peace of mind
01:17:10 Before diving deep into that. Yeah, I love that. I think that that's so cool. Veloce thank you so much for being on the podcast. Thank you guys for having me. This is fun. This has been great. And this will not be the last time you're on here for sure. As you see, you know, this was a longer podcast for us, so we, we've got more to explore. Absolutely. at Blas Hernandez on Instagram, go follow Blas underscore, don't forget that, don't forget that, underscore that underscore, we'll get you and then go delete a meme account at the same time. So just doubled up today except filmmaker mames keep filmmaker means on your, on your Instagram account. Cause that's one of the best ones around. But yeah, thank you. Blas again for, for being on [inaudible] guys, thank you so much. This is a Nashville daily podcast. Make sure to go follow us on Instagram at X PLR dot. Nash, our YouTube channel is the same X PLR dot. Nash, our Twitter account is X PLR underscore Nash. Don't forget to tweet us about Publix. Yes. Tweet us about Publix and what would make a server or a person helping lift your bags feel awkward and have a great week.